Is attending community college (CC) shameful?

Absolutely not. I didn’t have the grades, the scores, or the bucks to go to four yr school. And even w the GI Bill (which in those days was $110. Mo. Period. If not for California Junior Colleges I’d not have had a shot. There are plenty of fine j.c.s in CA and I found one (Fullerton) from which I transferred to CSUF and completed grad studies. Great system and a lifesaver for us who were…late-bloomers (slackers.)😁

You are delusional if you think that the difference in courses between CCs and Stanford has anything to do with the materials, professors, teaching methods or curriculum. The only meaningful difference is in the innate intelligence of the students.

Stanford admits far more intelligent students (on average). Stanford graduates far more intelligent students (on average). What value do you think Stanford adds for the individual?

Also true is that if you DON'T go to a CC, your chances of getting into a top-10 school like Stanford or Harvard are almost 0%.

^ nail on the head.

The smartest kids don't waste their time piling up HS honors - mostly a matter of hard work - and focus on developing themselves.

They don't need to go to the "best" school because they're already the best at learning, regardless of where they are. There is no inherent advantage to the elite schools to justify the cost; they are for prestige.

I went to a top 5 public university (math major) and both parents had checked out-mom with substance abuse and Dad fled with a young woman.

I made it through, but it was really tough. To this day, I sometimes wish I had gone to my decent local CC to start. It was cheap and I had friends from high school who I could have relied on to help negotiate my way through being 18 years old with zero job skills.

I realize that I am not the only one to have 5 bucks in the checking account with two weeks to payday, but it might have been better to go through this at the local CC.

Frozen pizzas were a form of saving for me. I forced myself to buy the mystery pizzas as backstop.

My high school friend went to this CC and then a four year and got a science Ph.D. from a great place. I am a little envious and wish my ego hadn't pushed me to a four year.

Broken home and poor parents and a good school means that you paid nothing. Community college woukd have cost more. And you should be making good money now. Good for you. No debt and a great job.

Dad was very wealthy. Aid went off his income, so no go. I had a "fun" meeting with the aid department when they suggested I sue him. NSF grant paid for Ph.D. It was hard to get one of these.

Actually it’s smart. Especially if you’re not a trust fund brat or have no idea what to major in. Get those general creds out the way and then transfer to a 4 year with your desired major. I did all my bachelors at a 4 year but regret not going to CC. I could have spent more time with my dad before he passed from cancer. Escaping to a drunk frat house at state u is not all its cracked up to be. Especially when you realize what’s important in life.

Smart for dumb kids. Smart kids pay less at real colleges.

PHD? You must be richer than 99% of the posters here.

meh. there are such things as graduation rates. routinely you will have schools with similar entering class quality but different outcomes. it can be tested and you can compare school A to B and C on retention. it's not as simple as GIGO (or the inverse).

this is nonsense. the quality of education provided at an ivy is superior. period. i have done a semester at one.

you're also getting dangerously close to suggesting the sign of the best and brightest is they have accomplished nothing, which verges on scientific nihilism and the end of talent evaluation. i get conservatives want to believe joe schmo can be the brighter guy. and rarely, maybe they are. after years of making themselves expert. but there are no short cuts to being the bright one in the room. and the bright one in the room usually manifests some sort of signal. grades. tests. achievements. inventions.

to put it in running terms it's the people who were several seconds of a walkon time but want to tell me they will walk on and make the team next year.

personally my concern with this mentality is it's subject to corruption. it's saying we can toss out the objective ways we distinguish who to give a job and just go with the gut. that then can easily be diverted into hiring friends, family, someone who slides an envelope under the table. no, if you want on my TF team, what actual times did you run this year. if you want my job, how are you better than the next guy.

i mean the reality i have lived is when i tacked on a master's employers perked up. people can act like degrees are unnecessary. maybe on some abstracted, start anew planet. but in reality if everyone applying has x degree the way you get the job is x+y. or to have gone to a better school for x. we can pretend otherwise but it's not how hiring reality works.

no, actually, usually the professor will have a more impressive academic background at an ivy than a state school, and in my experience the ivy school will speed through the basics focused on at state, and in fact begin teaching the next level or tricky stuff. conversely a teacher at an easier school to get in may feel duty bound to tailor to the audience ("dumb it down"). which you don't have to do when everyone showing up has a 1500-1600 SAT.

you're also neglecting the networking and how far the degree travels. whether it's fair or not there is some degree of self perpetuating where people from a particular ivy may hire more of their alums. kind of like people want to play for the college ranked #1. and then sorry but colorado might be a big deal if you stay there, but less so if you go to any other state. i guarantee you yale does not have the same regionality issue.

to be fair, i think some folks at a colorado would hack an ivy just fine. there is a venn overlap. but when you are hiring someone if you start playing the "well but don't they all kind of overlap" game you'd never hire anyone. so people treat phi beta kappa or rhodes as meaning something. yale vs. colorado as meaning something.

Not any more shameful that being excreted out of the ruling class to attend an Ivy League college and then pursuing a career in bomb making, hedge funds and the eradication of the middle and lower classes.

Ivy leagues are hot bed for antisemitism.

A lot of Juco college cope in this thread. The fact is, plenty of poor kids go to 4-year colleges straight out of HS on scholarships.
If you ended up at a community college, you were most likely lazy in HS or are just stupid.

In Cali the JC, Cal St and UC faculty have the same lower division curriculum, STEM labs, mid terms, and finals. Grading teams from the JC, Cal St, and UC cross check each others tests and labs.

that's just not true. Some parents make too much money for their kids to qualify for need-based aid, but they aren't flush with cash either. # American Life

You don't need to pay him or her any mind, he or she is just an a$$hole. No shortage of those no matter which college, community college, trade school, or workplace you go to.